When you live in areas that have freezing temperatures, it should come as second nature to keep an ice scraper in your car.

Not only should you have one of these devices in your car for the winter months, but having one in your garage or home is a good idea too. When your car gets frozen, and you can’t get into it to get the scraper, you might get frustrated and do something you shouldn’t while clearing snow and ice from your windshield. Let’s explore various scrapers and how to use them.

What is This Item that’s Used to Remove Snow and Ice?

An ice scraper is a tool to remove ice, frost, and snow from the windshield and windows of your car. Most of these scrapers have plastic or metal blades that break up the ice and scrape it off of the window to clear that area. There are many different types of scrapers you can use.

Extendable Scrapers

When you drive a larger vehicle, such as a truck or large SUV, you’ll want a scraper with an extendable handle. This allows you to easily reach the entire windshield and remove the icy accumulation. These scrapers can stretch up to 58 inches to make it possible for everyone to get the windshield clear of ice.

Scraper with a Snow Brush

If you have a pile of snow on top of the ice, or you’ve broken up the ice and need to remove it from the windows by brushing it away, a scraper that has a snow brush can be helpful. This gives you an easy way to have a nice clean area before you drive.

Squeegee Scrapers

A squeegee ice scraper is useful during winter, but it’s also great at other times of the year. This is the ideal tool to remove water away from your windows after a car wash. Yes, you should wash your car in the winter and wipe away excess water with the squeegee.

Magical Scrapers

These little devices don’t even look like scrapers at all. These devices are shaped like cones and seem like they would be better at holding the top of the pizza box rather than removing ice from your windshield. They work well, and all you have to do is rotate the cone around on the windshield to remove ice and snow.

Wallet-Sized Scraper

Many companies that operate in northern regions of the country offer promotional scrapers that are shaped like credit cards. These small pocket-sized scrapers can be kept in your wallet to make sure you’re never left unprepared to remove ice and snow from your car.

Heated Scrapers

A Heated scraper can be great to help you remove troublesome or thick ice and snow. Most plug into the power port in your car, and the heat created can melt the snow or ice to make it much easier to get through some of the toughest snow and ice on your vehicle.

Scraper Gloves

Using an ice scraper is cold work. If you don’t have a pair of gloves on, your hands can become red and frozen while removing the ice and snow. Thankfully, there are scraper gloves that have a scraper built into a warm glove-like item to keep your hands warm while you remove the cold stuff from your vehicle.

What’s the Best Way to Remove Snow and Ice from Your Car?

The best choice for removing the cold stuff from your vehicle is with a long-handled scraper that has a snow brush on it. Once you have this item, here are some of the things you want to do and also some that you don’t want to do when you’re removing the ice and snow from your vehicle.

What Should You Do?

• Raise your windshield wipers when you know a storm is coming. This makes it easier to remove the snow and ice that arrives. You don’t want to damage your wipers with the ice scraper while removing ice and snow from your vehicle.
• Start your car and turn on the defroster before you begin to remove ice and snow.
• Start at the top of the windshield and work your way down.
• Don’t press too hard; let the scraper do most of the work. You do have to press a little firmly, but not too hard.
• Keep a backup scraper in your house. This is a great idea in case your car is too frozen to get the scraper located in the car.
• Dress warmly to remove ice and snow. If there’s ice and snow on your car, that means it’s very cold outside. Dress appropriately.

Are There Things You Don’t Want to Do?

• Don’t brush snow and ice from your car into a neighbor’s space. Be courteous of others; everyone is dealing with the same weather conditions; you’re not special.
• Don’t use the rigid side of the scraper to remove ice from painted body panels. You can lightly use the brush to remove accumulated snow but avoid touching the paint with the scraper or brush.
• Don’t start your windshield wipers while using the ice scraper. Use the scraper first. Frozen ice can damage the rubber of your wipers or the motor.
• Don’t pour hot water or salt over your windshield or on the windows. Hot water can crack your windows from the change in temperature, and the salt can damage the glass.
• Don’t use a heat gun or hair dryer to remove ice; these are dangerous and can damage many parts of your car.
• Don’t tap the ice to break it up. When you’re too forceful, you could break the windshield and have a much bigger problem than you had.
• Don’t drive your car with too much ice or snow on your windshield. A small hole of visibility isn’t enough to make sure you can see and be safe on the road.

An ice scraper seems like a simple device to use, but if you don’t have one or you don’t clear ice and snow from your car properly, you’ll pay for the problems later. Make sure you have at least two scrapers before the foul weather hits.